Discours et Messages
One of the copies on pur fil paper.
Presentation copy inscribed by de Gaulle to Lord Avon: “Pour Lord Avon [Anthony Eden], en fidèle et amical souvenir, C. de Gaulle, 28.4.70.”
These five volumes bring together the speeches delivered by General de Gaulle, from the celebrated appeal of 18 June 1940 to the speech of 28 April 1969. The exact texts have been preserved, either written in his own hand for radio and televised addresses, or recorded by official shorthand for his public speeches and addresses to the Assemblies.
A splendid provenance: that of Anthony Eden, formerly Churchill’s Secretary of State for War during the conflict, then Foreign Secretary, then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1955 to 1957. Anthony Eden was raised to the peerage on 12 July 1961, receiving the titles of Viscount Eden and Earl of Avon on that date.
His relations with Charles de Gaulle, constant since their first meeting in London in 1940, were marked by genuine collaboration and, in time, friendship. De Gaulle regularly presented him with each of his books, and an extensive correspondence attests to the close ties between them.
The first volume of the Discours appeared in April 1970 and was likewise sent to Anthony Eden. The remaining volumes followed over the course of 1970, de Gaulle, though ill, making a point of correcting the final proofs of these volumes, as well as those of the Mémoires d’espoir, published concurrently, from La Boisserie. He died on 9 November 1970 — four days after the publication of the fourth volume, “Pour l’effort.” The last, “Vers le terme,” was completed in print on 24 November.